| WHAT: |
The newly-passed House health care bill includes a public option. However, if the government plays a larger role in health care delivery, many questions are raised about gatekeeping that concern the Joni and Friends (JAF) disability ministry and its public policy initiative, the Christian Institute on Disability (CID).
“Those with disabilities, the chronically-ill, and the elderly are the very ones who need quality health care the most,” says Joni Eareckson Tada, the founder and CEO of JAF. “And because that care can also be the most expensive, we are concerned that these most vulnerable will represent the ones whose lives are determined not worthy of the cost.”
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| WHO: |
Kathy McReynolds, Ph.D., Director of Public Policy for CID. McReynolds is a bio-ethicist and professor at Biola University in Southern California. She earned her Ph.D. in ethics at USC, specializing in ethical issues and genetic enhancement research. She teaches courses at Biola in theology, philosophy and bioethics. She is an active member of the ethics committee at Children’s Hospital in Orange County and has recently been invited to become a member of the ethics committee at UCI Medical Center.
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| WHEN: |
Via phone, Skype video or in-studio from Los Angeles
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| DETAILS: |
Health care reform could force insurance companies or the government to make choices on which treatments are made available to patients based upon evidence-based outcomes, not what may be in the best interest of the individual. Such a focus would undermine the sanctity of life and medical ethics.
Long before they were considered “hot topics,” Tada and the staff at the CID anticipated the ethical issues surrounding embryonic stem cell research and the removal of nutrition and hydration. They believe that Terry Schiavo’s death on March 31, 2005, was a wake-up call to the Christian community that the lives of the most vulnerable are under threat. The CID continues to lead the charge by providing a biblical response to these issues that are now a part of the national conversation.
The CID addresses the most pressing issues in bio-ethics today through its Public Policy Center.
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| NOTE: |
To request an interview, please contact Dan Parker at [email protected] or 972.267.1111, ext. 206.
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